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VOL. I—NO. 6 , APRIL, 1925 PRICE 5 CENTS The Evolution of Anarchist Theories E shall attempt to review in lence: rent, interest, profit, and taxes. The further develbpmeht of Anar this brief sketch the theoreti They demand freedom of production for chist theories therefore centered around W cal developmlent of Anar the individual and for the voluntary the problem qf harmonizing, economic chism by describing the ideas whence groups in unrestrained competition in conditions with the basic principle of Anarchist thought originated and the the open market. The principle of the a free society. The idea of equitable manner in which the various. modern "full product of one's labor" is main and direct exchange repeatedly sought schools of Anarchism gradually devel tained by securing to each, as his in practical expression, as in the London oped. We shall therefore leave out of alienable private possesMon, all that he Industrial Fairs, also in America aud consideration all general historical dis is able to gain by competing against France. Similar ideas are still cham cussions, biographic and literary data, the whole field. Thel restrictions en pioned by the American, English, and and the external history of the move forced in present society by monopoly Australian Individualist Anarchists, as ment. —aided by its^ tool, the State—^being well as by somie followers of Proudhon and Stirner. Our modern attitude, how There never lacked men to advocate eliminated, the equal opportunity of all ever, is opposed to these ideas on the subtle projects of governmental organ niust result in the equitable exchange ground that the requirements of com ization and regulation of production of equal values. Nor, does this system petition would nullify the liberty of the and consumption—so-called Utopians, necessitate exclusive individual produc producers; it is inevitable that pro the forerunners of modem State Social tion, as its opponents claim; on the ducers, living under , comparatively ism, which is still retaining in all its contrary, it leaves full scope for un more, favorable conditions, should gain essential characteristics the stamp of limited free co-operation with its re-» an advantage over their competitors, its source. suiting advantages. The principle of free competition between the various thus laying the foundation of inequal But there were also' those who co-operative groups remains intact. ity; thence it is but a step to law and cherished libeii;y above governmentally authority, to maintain—forcibly if The deep significance of the ideas organized happiness. They were not necessary—advantageous inequality. terrified by the thought of a society in advocated by Godwin, Warren,. Proud which individual tendencies and inclina hon, and Stirner, consisted in their op The next step was the recognition of tions have full sway, relying on liberty position to the authoritarian and re the dollective ownership of land and to serve as a safety valve in maintain ligious Communism of their time. The the tools of production, as well as of ing social equilibrium and individual tendency of the latter was manifest in the "full product of one's labor"— Welfare. Sta^e Communism, regulating by law Collectivist Anarchism, as it is even It was but natural that these thinjc- and rule every detail of private life, or now predominant in Spain. Originating ers should strenuously emphasize the in monastic Communism rooted in. mere in Switzerland and Belgium, this idea standpoint of Individualism—^personal sentimentality; added to this was the reached its highest development, in the liberty and autonomy—without a't- spirit of political, centralized Jacobin Internationale, during the latter part tempting to formulate finally the econ ism; only occasionally did the spirit of of the 60's and the beginning of the omic bases of that liberty. Thus we find liberty manifest itself, as in Owen's ad 70's. Its chief exponents were Bakunin, William Godwin, in England (1793),; vocacy of voluntary Communistic com Guillaume, de Paepe, Warlin, and Josiah Warren, Stephen Pearl An monwealths, or in the far-reaching others. The most inspiring pei'iod of drews and others, in America, at the principles of Fourier. Under such con the young labor movement in the Cen end of the 20's; Proudhon, in Prance, ditions the severest criticism and con tral and Southern States of Europe in the 40's, aijid Max Stirner, in Ger demnation of authoritarianism and the (Germany and Austria excepted) was many (1845)—all original representa emphasizing of individual freedom were closely connected with the development tives of Individualist Anarchism, each in themselves a liberating act, no matter of this new tendency. In the middle of advocating—in his own manner and as to the tenability of the temporary the 60's the Internationale was com quite independently of the others—a economic standpoint. For it is only posed of Proudhonists (Mutualists), system of individual sovereignty, of mu liberty—untrammeled free development State Socialists (the then few personal tualism, of egoism. They reject all —that can serve as a safe foundation followers of Marx), Bourgeois-Social political systems based on majority for further progress. That is far more ists (as we may call the Geneve politi rule—so-called democracy—as well as important than mere economic condi cians who dealt in ballots and com Authoritarian Communism based on tions on which so much stress is usually promises), Trades Unionists (in Eng State, or public ownership of the land laid. Liberty is the vital principle of land) , and of a certain really promising and means of production, now gener every phase of our hfe, the economic element, on which the future of the ally known as State Socialism. They included; conditions founded on com Internationale depended. This young want production to be freed from the pulsion cannot endure—no matter what 'element, believing to have found in Col fetters imposed by economic monopoly the force that maintains them for the lectivism the long-looked for economic and maintained by governmental vio time being. foundation of Mutualism, carried the ' ' lllli 2 THE ROAD TO FREEDOM gospel of Collectivist Anarchism and of of Anarchism is the repudiation of this food, apparel, etc., has become as much the Internationale into the Jura, South principle and the declaration in favor a matter of course as is to-day the use ern France, Spain, Italy, and among of collective ownership, not merely in of the streets or of the air (though even the youth of the Slavic countries. In the tools of production, but also in the these the poor cannot freely enjoy)— this they were greatly aided by Baku- products of labor: Anarchist Commun only then could really free beings de nin, whose wonderful ability as an agi ism. velop, emancipated' men and women, tator helped them to gain numerous The latter—^which had already previ able to appreciate in their proper light adherents in Southern Europe, from the teachings of a Stirner. ously found its individual representa Spain to Russia. tives, such as, for instance, Joseph De- A further evolution of Anarchist It is unnecessary to record here the jaque—began to be systematically thought concerns the tendencies mani bittei* opposition, full of lies and in propagated, since 1876, in the Italian fest in the development of modern in trigue, with which these young prop Internationale and in Genf, gradually dustry along these lines. Anarchism agandists met. Not 'only were they displacing the former Collectivist ten reaches the conclusion that production, fought by the bourgeoisie, but still more dencies in Switzerland, France^ and in the future, will become decentralized venomously by the State Socialistic, Italy. Its chief theoretic and literary and local. Naturally such a conception political, Marxian Social Democracy. exponents are Cafiero, Malatesta, Kro- excludes the possibility of State Social It was a struggle between the ideas of potkin, Reclus, and others. ism. The Marxians, witnessing the gi Federation, Collectivism (in the sense It is fruitless to seek a standard for gantic modern combinations of capital, of that epoch), and Anarchism on one the distribution of products, one to be conclude that gradual centralization of hand, negating bourgeois politics and equitable to all. A measure founded on industry will finally become concen prppagating revolutionary methods, as the labor performed would be as unjust trated in the hands of the State. In against Centralization, State Owner to the individual as impossible in its this, however, they confound the effects ship, and Authority, on the other, with social application. Unjust to the in of capitalism" and State-protected mon their political, corrupting tactics. Only dividual, because such a standard would opoly with the real development of pro in Germany and Austria was the latter mean inequality for everyone. Im duction. In reality, however, industrial tendency temporarily successful. In the possible of social application, because ism is in a process of constant growth other countries, especially in Southern the value of a product does not depend in the most distant lands, the tendency Europe, the Marxians soon became on labor alone, and cannot therefore of individual countries, provinces, cities thoroughly discredited owing to the in be thus exclusively measured. The only and towns to produce independently be describably perfidious means of combat possible standard is division according coming daily more apparent. "With the ing the Anarchism of the Interna to individual need; that is, free con abolition of financial monopolies, stif tionale. sumption. This alone takes into ac ling this development, the gradual The theories of collective ownership count the differences of individual tastes equalization of industrial effort would admit of various conceptions. Is the and needs, the consideration of which receive a tremendous impetus. Equally community of a certain trade, or the is socially imperative.